When audit issues in public sector entities raised by the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) are not addressed, then it raises the question of whether government permanent secretaries and chief finance officers are doing their job.
Opposition member Aseri Radrodro said this in Parliament last Tuesday during the debate on the audit report on follow-up of high-risk ministries and departments.
He was speaking in his capacity as a member of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chaired by government MP Alvick Maharaj.
Mr Radrodro said it was a bipartisan report that was endorsed by the committee about the recommendations raised by the OAG.
He commended the OAG for conducting a special audit on the implementation of the recommendations they had put through in the audit of the whole of government accounts in 2017.
“They have highlighted some of the deficiencies in terms of full implementation, partially implemented and the non-implementation of the audit recommendations,” Mr Radrodro said.
“I think for some members of this side of the House (Opposition), there are important issues.
“A lot of activities are happening since the time of the audit in which the OAG could efficiently divert their resources to and for them to take this special activity to chase up the implementations of the recommendations, this is a big concern.”
Mr Radrodro said the OAG had explained the audit was undertaken in the government ministries on the basis of “high risk” classifications.
“The OAG also highlighted that because of the limitation of the Act, the limitations in the way they conduct their activities, they also highlighted the OAG also reports to Parliament with recommendations to improve the performances or enhance accountability of public sector entities.
“The OAG is not responsible nor does it have the powers to enforce the implementation of these recommendations.
“It is very clear the role of the OAG is only limited to highlighting the issues to respective ministries and departments.
“It is the responsibility of the permanent secretaries and chief accounting officers to do these recommendations and address the anomalies by OAG and it raises another question when these permanent secretaries and chief accounting officers are not doing their jobs – as has been highlighted by OAG and also in previous reports.”
The committee had scrutinised the audit report and reviewed government ministries and departments the OAG classified as “high risk”.
These included the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management, Republic of Fiji Military Forces, Fiji Police Force, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
